Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apartments
Classifieds
Shopping
The parents of a former Miami Middle School special education student sued FWCS Thursday in Allen Circuit Court, alleging the district failed to protect their daughter from being molested by another student.
William and Julie Hosler filed the lawsuit on behalf of their daughter, alleging the girl, who has autism and was then a sixth-grader at Miami Middle School, was molested on two separate occasions on April 25, 2007, according to court documents.
Fort Wayne Community Schools officials declined to comment on the lawsuit because they never comment on pending litigation.
According to court documents, the girl’s special education class was watching movies that day and another student molested her. The boy, who also suffers from autism, grabbed her, fondled her and sexually molested her, according to court documents.
After the first molesting, which occurred in the morning, the girl told the school nurse. After the second episode, which happened around 2 p.m., the girl told the school’s principal, and then, on the way home, she told her bus driver, according to court documents.
Julie Hosler called the school and the principal told her “an incident happened at the school, that (the girl) was touched by another student and there was nothing to worry about because nothing had occurred and that the students’ hormones were involved,” according to court documents.
An examination at Parkview Hospital revealed the girl had been molested and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to court documents.
The girl’s parents allege they shared with the school on two occasions before April 25, 2007, that the girl had been physically attacked at the school. They allege the lights were off in the classroom, in violation of school policy, according to court documents.
They contend the school staff and school district officials were negligent in supervising the school because of a “complete failure to monitor the students during the showing of the movie in a classroom,” according to court documents.
The girl left Miami Middle School because of the trauma and has required extensive counseling, according to court documents.
The girl’s family is seeking damages for her emotional suffering, medical and psychological treatment, and payment for the expense of attending another school, according to court documents.
rgreen@jg.net
